[Illustration: _An English Family at Tea._ Detail from an oil painting
attributed to Joseph Van Aken, about 1720. In collection of Victoria
and Albert Museum. Crown Copyright. (Color plate courtesy of the
_Saturday Book_.)]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_Tea Drinking in 18th-Century America:
Its Etiquette and Equipage--_
_By Rodris Roth_
_In 18th-century America, the pleasant practice of taking tea at home
was an established social custom with a recognized code of manners and
distinctive furnishings. Pride was taken in a correct and fashionable
tea table whose equipage included much more than teapot, cups, and
saucers._
_It was usually the duty of the mistress to make and pour the tea; and
it was the duty of the guests to be adept at handling a teacup and
saucer and to provide social "chitchat." Because of the expense and
time involved, the tea party was limited to the upper classes;
consequently, such an affair was a status symbol. The cocktail party of
the 20th century has, perhaps, replaced the tea party of the 18th
century as a social custom, reflecting the contrast between the relaxed
atmosphere of yesterday with the hurried pace of today._
THE AUTHOR: _Miss Roth is assistant curator of cultural history in the
United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution._
---------------------
The Americans "use much tea," noted the Abbé Robin during his visit to
this country in 1781. "The greatest mark of civility and welcome they
can show you, is to invite you to drink it with them."[1]
Tea was the social beverage of the 18th century; serving it was a sign
of politeness and hospitality, and drinking it was a custom with
distinctive manners and specific equipment. Most discussions of the
commodity have dealt only with its political, historical, or economic
importance; however, in order to understand the place tea holds in this
country's past, it also is important to consider the beverage in terms
of the social life and traditions of the Americans. As the Abbé Robin
pointed out, not only was tea an important commodity on this side of
the Atlantic, but the imbibing of it was an established social practice.
An examination of teatime behavior and a consideration of what utensils
were used or thought appropriate for tea drinking are of help in
reconstructing and interpreting American history as well as in
furnishing and re-creating interiors of the period, thus bringing into
clearer focus the picture of daily life in 18th-century America. For
these reasons, and because the subject has received little attention,
the present study has been undertaken.
Tea had long been known and used in the Orient before it was introduced
into Europe in the early part of the 17th century. At about the same
time two other new beverages appeared, chocolate from the Americas and
coffee from the Near East. The presence of these commodities in
European markets is indicative of the vigorous exploration and active
trade of that century, which also witnessed the successful settlement
of colonies in North America. By about mid-17th century the new
beverages were being drunk in England, and by the 1690's were being
sold in New England. At first chocolate was preferred, but coffee,
being somewhat cheaper, soon replaced it and in England gave rise to a
number of public places of refreshment known as coffee houses. Coffee
was, of course, the primary drink of these establishments, but that tea
also was available is indicated by an advertisement that appeared in an
English newspaper in 1658. One of the earliest advertisements for tea,
it announced:
That Excellent, and by all Physitians approved, _China_ Drink,
called by the _Chineans_, _Tcha_, by other nations _Tay alias
Tee_, is sold at the _Sultaness-head_, a _Cophee-house_ in
_Sweetings_ Rents by The Royal Exchange, London.[2]
For a time tea was esteemed mainly for its curative powers, which
explains why it was "by all Physitians approved." According to an
English broadside published in 1660, the numerous contemporary ailments
which tea "helpeth" included "the headaches, giddiness, and heaviness."
It was also considered "good for colds, dropsies and scurvies and [it]
expelleth infection. It prevents and cures agues, surfeits and
fevers."[3] By the end of the 17th century, however, tea's medicinal
qualities had become secondary to its fashionableness as a unique
drink. Tea along with the other exotic and novel imports from the
Orient such as fragile porcelains, lustrous silks, and painted
wallpapers had captured the European imagination. Though the beverage
was served in public pleasure gardens as well as coffee houses during
the early 1700's in England, social tea drinking in the home was
gradually coming into favor. The coffee houses continued as centers of
political, social, and literary influence as well as of commercial life
into the first half of the 19th century, for apparently Englishmen
preferred to drink their coffee in public rather than private houses
and among male rather than mixed company. This was in contrast to tea,
which was drunk in the home with breakfast or as a morning beverage and
socially at afternoon gatherings of both sexes, as we see in the
painting _An English Family at Tea_ (frontispiece). As tea drinking in
the home became fashionable, both host and hostess took pride in a
well-appointed tea table, for a teapot of silver or fragile
blue-and-white Oriental porcelain with matching cups and saucers and
other equipage added prestige as well as elegance to the teatime ritual.
[Illustration: Figure 1.--_Family Group_, by Gawen Hamilton, about
1730. In collection of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc. The tea set,
undoubtedly of porcelain, includes cups and saucers, a cream or milk
container, and a sugar container with tongs. (_Photo courtesy of
Colonial Williamsburg, Inc._)]
At first the scarcity and expense of the tea, the costly paraphernalia
used to serve it, and the leisure considered necessary to consume it,
limited the use of this commodity to the upper classes. For these
reasons, social tea drinking was, understandably, a prestige custom.
One becomes increasingly aware of this when looking at English
paintings and prints of the early 18th century, such as _Family Group_
(fig. 1), painted by Gawen Hamilton about 1730. Family members are
portrayed in the familiar setting of their own parlor with its paneled
walls and comfortable furnishings. Their pet, a small dog, surveys the
scene from a resting place on a corner of the carpet. Teatime appears
to have just begun, for cups are still being passed around and others
on the table await filling from the nearby porcelain teapot. It seems
reasonable to assume, since the painting is portraiture, that the
family is engaged in an activity which, although familiar, is
considered suitable to the group's social position and worthy of being
recorded in oil. That tea drinking was a status symbol also is
indicated by the fact that the artist has used the tea ceremony as the
theme of the picture and the tea table as the focal point.
Eighteenth-century pictures and writings are basic source materials for
information about Anglo-American tea drinking. (See the chronological
list of pictures consulted, on page 90.) A number of the pictures are
small-scale group or conversation piece paintings of English origin in
which family and friends are assembled at tea, similar to _Family
Group_, and they provide pictorial information on teatime modes and
manners. The surroundings in which the partakers of tea are depicted
also reveal information about the period and about the gracious living
enjoyed in the better homes. Paneled walls and comfortable chairs,
handsome chests and decorative curtains, objects of ceramic and silver
and glass, all were set down on canvas or paper with painstaking care,
and sometimes with a certain amount of artistic license. A careful
study of these paintings provides an excellent guide for furnishing and
reconstructing period rooms and exhibits, even to the small details
such as objects on mantels, tables, and chests, thus further
documenting data from newspapers, journals, publications, and writings
of the same period.
In America, as in England, tea had a rather limited use as a social
beverage during the early 1700's. Judge Samuel Sewall, the
recorder-extraordinary of Boston life at the turn of the 17th century,
seems to have mentioned tea only once in his copious diary. In the
entry for April 15, 1709, Sewall wrote that he had attended a meeting
at the residence of Madam Winthrop where the guests "drunk Ale, Tea,
Wine."[4] At this time ale and wine, in contrast to tea, were fairly
common drinks. Since tea and the equipment used to serve it were
costly, social tea drinking was restricted to the prosperous and
governing classes who could afford the luxury. The portrayal of the
rotund silver teapot and other tea-drinking equipment in such an
American painting as _Susanna Truax_ (fig. 2), done by an unknown
painter in 1730, indicates that in this country as in England not only
was the tea ceremony of social importance but also that a certain
amount of prestige was associated with the equipage. And, the very fact
that an artist was commissioned for a portrait of this young girl is
suggestive of a more than ordinary social status of the sitter and
activity depicted.
[Illustration: Figure 2. _Susanna Truax_, an American painting dated
1730. In collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch,
National Gallery of Art. On the beige, marble-like table top beside
Susanna--who wears a dress of red, black, and white stripes--are a
fashionable silver teapot and white ceramic cup, saucer, and sugar
dish. (_Photo courtesy National Gallery of Art._)]
English customs were generally imitated in this country, particularly
in the urban centers. Of Boston, where he visited in 1740, Joseph
Bennett observed that "the ladies here visit, drink tea and indulge
every little piece of gentility to the height of the mode and neglect
the affairs of their families with as good grace as the finest ladies
in London."[5] English modes and manners remained a part of the social
behavior after the colonies became an independent nation. Visitors to
the newly formed United States were apt to remark about such habits as
tea drinking, as did Brissot de Warville in 1788, that "in this, as in
their whole manner of living, the Americans in general resemble the
English."[6] Therefore, it is not surprising to find that during the
18th century the serving of tea privately in the morning and socially
in the afternoon or early evening was an established custom in many
households.
The naturalist Peter Kalm, during his visit to North America in the
mid-18th century, noted that tea was a breakfast beverage in both
Pennsylvania and New York. From the predominantly Dutch town of Albany
in 1749 he wrote that "their breakfast is tea, commonly without milk."
At another time, Kalm[7] stated:
With the tea was eaten bread and butter or buttered bread
toasted over the coals so that the butter penetrated the whole
slice of bread. In the afternoon about three o'clock tea was
drunk again in the same fashion, except that bread and butter
was not served with it.
This tea-drinking schedule was followed throughout the colonies. In
Boston the people "take a great deal of tea in the morning," have
dinner at two o'clock, and "about five o'clock they take more tea, some
wine, madeira [and] punch,"[8] reported the Baron Cromot du Bourg
during his visit in 1781. The Marquis de Chastellux confirms his
countryman's statement about teatime, mentioning that the Americans
take "tea and punch in the afternoon."[9]
During the first half of the 18th century the limited amount of tea
available at prohibitively high prices restricted its use to a
proportionately small segment of the total population of the colonies.
About mid-century, however, tea was beginning to be drunk by more and
more people, as supplies increased and costs decreased, due in part to
the propaganda and merchandising efforts of the East India Company.
According to Peter Kalm, tea, chocolate, and coffee had been "wholly
unknown" to the Swedish population of Pennsylvania and the surrounding
area before the English arrived, but in 1748 these beverages "at
present constitute even the country people's daily breakfast."[10] A
similar observation was made a few years later by Israel Acrelius:[11]
Tea, coffee, and chocolate are so general as to be found in the
most remote cabins, if not for daily use, yet for visitors,
mixed with Muscovado, or raw sugar.
America was becoming a country of tea drinkers. Then, in 1767, the
Townshend Act imposed a duty on tea, among other imported commodities.
Merchants and citizens in opposition to the act urged a boycott of the
taxed articles. A Virginia woman, in a letter[12] to friends in
England, wrote in 1769:
... I have given up the Article of Tea, but some are not quite
so tractable; however if wee can convince the good folks on
your side the Water of their Error, wee may hope to see happier
times.
In spite of the tax many colonists continued to indulge in tea
drinking. By 1773 the general public, according to one Philadelphia
merchant, "can afford to come at this piece of luxury" while one-third
of the population "at a moderate computation, drink tea twice a
day."[13] It was at this time, however, that efforts were made to
enforce the English tea tax and the result was that most famous of tea
parties, the "Boston Tea Party."
Thereafter, an increasing number of colonists abstained from tea
drinking as a patriotic gesture. Philip Fithian, a tutor at Nomini
Hall, the Virginia plantation of Col. Robert Carter, wrote in his
journal on Sunday, May 29, 1774:
After dinner we had a Grand & agreeable Walk in & through the
Gardens--There is great plenty of Strawberries, some Cherries,
Goose berries &c.--Drank Coffee at four, they are now too
patriotic to use tea.
And indeed they were patriotic, for by September the taste of tea
almost had been forgotten at Nomini Hall, as Fithian vividly recounted
in his journal:[14]
Something in our palace this Evening, very merry happened--Mrs.
_Carter_ made a dish of Tea. At Coffee, she sent me a dish--&
the Colonel both ignorant--He smelt, sipt--look'd--At last with
great gravity he asks what's this?--Do you ask Sir--Poh!--And
out he throws it splash a sacrifice to Vulcan.
[Illustration: Figure 3.--_A Society of Patriotic Ladies_ at Edenton in
North Carolina pledging to drink no more tea, 1775, an engraving
published by R. Sayer and J. Bennet, London. In Print and Photograph
Division, Library of Congress. (_Photo courtesy of Library of
Congress._)]
Other colonists, in their own way, also showed their distaste for tea
(see fig. 3). Shortly before the outbreak of the American Revolution
there appeared in several newspapers an expression of renouncement in
rhyme, "A Lady's Adieu to Her Tea-Table"[15] (below), which provides a
picture of contemporary teatime etiquette and equipage.
_A Lady's Adieu to Her Tea-Table_
_FAREWELL the Tea-board with your gaudy attire,
Ye cups and ye saucers that I did admire;
To my cream pot and tongs I now bid adieu;
That pleasure's all fled that I once found in you.
Farewell pretty chest that so lately did shine,
With hyson and congo and best double fine;
Many a sweet moment by you I have sat,
Hearing girls and old maids to tattle and chat;
And the spruce coxcomb laugh at nothing at all,
Only some silly work that might happen to fall.
No more shall my teapot so generous be
In filling the cups with this pernicious tea,
For I'll fill it with water and drink out the same,
Before I'll lose LIBERTY that dearest name,
Because I am taught (and believe it is fact)
That our ruin is aimed at in the late act,
Of imposing a duty on all foreign Teas,
Which detestable stuff we can quit when we please.
LIBERTY'S The Goddess that I do adore,
And I'll maintain her right until my last hour,
Before she shall part I will die in the cause,
For I'll never be govern'd by tyranny's laws._
Many people gave up tea for the duration of the war and offered various
substitute beverages such as coffee and dried raspberry leaves, "a
detestable drink" which the Americans "had the heroism to find good,"
remarked a postwar visitor, Léon Chotteau.[16] Although the colonists
had banished tea "with enthusiasm," the tea habit was not forgotten.
Chotteau further noted that "they all drink tea in America as they
drink wine in the South of France." Tea drinking continued to be an
important social custom in the new nation well into the 19th century.
The tea ceremony, sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate, was the very
core of family life. Moreau de St. Méry observed in 1795, during his
residence in Philadelphia, that "the whole family is united at tea, to
which friends, acquaintances and even strangers are invited."[17] That
teatime hospitality was offered to the newest of acquaintances or "even
strangers" is verified by Claude Blanchard. He wrote of his visit to
Newport, Rhode Island, on July 12, 1780, that "in the evening there was
an illumination. I entered the house of an inhabitant, who received me
very well; I took tea there, which was served by a young lady." And
while staying in Boston, Blanchard mentioned that a new acquaintance
"invited us to come in the evening to take tea at his house. We went
there; the tea was served by his daughter."[18]
In the daily routine of activities when the hour for tea arrived,
Moreau de St. Méry remarked that "the mistress of the house serves it
and passes it around."[19] In the words of another late-18th-century
diarist, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, those present might "seat
themselves at a spotless mahogany table, and the eldest daughter of the
household or one of the youngest married women makes the tea and gives
a cup to each person in the company." _Family Group_ (fig. 1) provides
an illustration of this practice in the early part of the century.
During the tea hour social and economic affairs were discussed, gossip
exchanged, and, according to Barbé-Marbois, "when there is no news at
all, they repeat old stories."[20] Many entries in Nancy Shippen's
journal[21] between 1783 and 1786 indicate that this Philadelphian
passed many such hours in a similar manner. On March 11, 1785, she
wrote: "About 4 in the Afternoon D^r Cutting came in, & we spent the
afternoon in the most agreable chit-chat manner, drank a very good dish
of Tea together & then separated." Part of an undated entry in December
1783 reads: "This Afternoon we were honor'd with the Company of Gen^l
Washington to Tea, M^{rs} & Major Moore, M^{rs} Stewart M^r Powel M^r B
Washington, & two or 3 more." If acquaintances of Nancy's own age were
present or the company large, the tea hour often extended well into the
evening with singing, conversing, dancing, and playing of whist, chess,
or cards. Of one such occasion she wrote:[21]
M^{rs} Allen & the Miss Chews drank Tea with me & spent the
even'g. There was half a dozen agreable & sensible men that was
of the party. The conversation was carried on in the most
sprightly, agreable manner, the Ladies bearing by far the
greatest part--till nine when cards was proposed, & about ten,
refreshments were introduced which concluded the Evening.
Obviously, young men and women enjoyed the sociability of teatime, for
it provided an ideal occasion to get acquainted. When the Marquis de
Chastellux was in Philadelphia during the 1780's he went one afternoon
to "take tea with Madam Shippen," and found musical entertainment to
meet with his approval and a relationship between the sexes which had
parental sanction. One young miss played on the clavichord, and "Miss
Shippen sang with timidity but a very pretty voice," accompanied for a
time by Monsieur Otto on the harp. Dancing followed, noted the Marquis,
"while mothers and other grave personages conversed in another
room."[22] In New York as in Philadelphia teatime was an important part
of the younger set's social schedule. Eliza Bowne, writing to her
sister in January 1810, reported that "as to news--New York is not so
gay as last Winter, few balls but a great many tea-parties."[23] The
feminine interest and participation in such gatherings of personable
young men and attractive young women was expressed by Nancy Shippen[24]
when she wrote in her journal after such a party:
"Saturday night at 11 o'clock. I had a very large company at
Tea this Evening. The company is but just broke up, I dont know
when I spent a more merry Even^g. We had music, Cards, &c &c."
A masculine view of American tea parties was openly voiced by one
foreign visitor, Prince de Broglie, who, upon arrival in America in
1782, "only knew a few words of English, but knew better how to drink
excellent tea with even better cream, how to tell a lady she was
pretty, and a gentleman he was sensible, by reason whereof I possessed
all the elements of social success."[25] Similar feelings were
expressed by the Comte de Ségur during his sojourn in America in the
late 18th century when, in a letter to his wife in France, he wrote:
"My health continues excellent, despite the quantity of tea one must
drink with the ladies out of gallantry, and of madeira all day long
with the men out of politeness."[26]
Festive tea parties such as the ones described above are the subject of
some of the group portraits or conversation pieces painted about 1730
by the English artist William Hogarth. _The Assembly at Wanstead
House_, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, illustrates quite an
elegant affair taking place in a large, richly decorated, English
interior. The artist has filled the canvas with people standing and
conversing while a seated group plays cards at a table in the center of
the room. To one side near the fireplace a man and two women drinking
tea are seated at an ornately carved, square tea table with a matching
stand for the hot water kettle. On a dish or circular stand in the
center of the table is a squat teapot with matching cups and saucers
arranged in parallel rows on either side.
Tea-drinking guests seem to have been free to sit or stand according to
their own pleasure or the number of chairs available, and Barbé-Marbois
noted that at American tea parties "people change seats, some go,
others come." The written and visual materials offer little in the way
of evidence to suggest that in general men stood and women sat during
teatime. In fact, places at the tea table were taken by both sexes,
even at formal tea parties such as the one depicted in _The Assembly at
Wanstead House_.
A less formal but more usual tea scene is the subject of another
Hogarth painting, _The Wollaston Family_, now in the Leicester Art
Gallery, England. The afternoon gathering has divided into two groups,
one playing cards, the other drinking tea. An atmosphere of ease and
comfort surrounds the party. The men and women seated at the card table
are discussing the hand just played, while the women seated about the
square tea table in front of the fireplace are engaged in conversation.
A man listens as he stands and stirs his tea. Each drinker holds a
saucer with a cup filled from the teapot on a square tile or stand in
the center of the table. One woman is returning her cup, turned upside
down on the saucer, to the table. More about this particular habit
later.
The same pleasant social atmosphere seen in English paintings seems to
have surrounded teatime in America, as the previously cited entries in
Nancy Shippen's journal book suggest. Her entry for January 18,
1784,[27] supplies a description that almost matches _The Wollaston
Family_:
"A stormy day, alone till the afternoon; & then was honor'd
with the Company of M^r Jones (a gentleman lately from Europe)
M^r Du Ponceau, & M^r Hollingsworth at Tea--We convers'd on a
variety of subjects & play^d at whist, upon the whole spent an
agreable Even^g."
Tea was not only a beverage of courtship; it also was associated with
marriage. Both Peter Kalm, in 1750, and Moreau de St. Méry, in the
1790's, report the Philadelphia custom of expressing good wishes to a
newly married couple by paying them a personal visit soon after the
marriage. It was the duty of the bride to serve wine and punch to the
callers before noon and tea and wine in the afternoon.[28]
No doubt, make-believe teatime and pretend tea drinking were a part of
some children's playtime activities. Perhaps many a little girl played
at serving tea and dreamed of having a tea party of her own, but few
were as fortunate as young Peggy Livingston who, at about the age of
five, was allowed to invite "by card ... 20 young misses" to her own
"Tea Party & Ball." She "treated them with all good things, & a
violin," wrote her grandfather. There were "5 coaches at y^e door at
10 when they departed. I was much amused 2 hours."[29]
[Illustration: Figure 4.--_Conversazioni_, by W. H. Bunbury, published
1782. In Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress.]
Tea seems to have been the excuse for many a social gathering, large or
small, formal or informal. And sometimes an invitation to drink tea
meant a rather elegant party. "That is to say," wrote one cosmopolitan
observer of the American scene in the 1780's, the Marquis de
Chastellux, "to attend a sort of assembly pretty much like the
_conversazioni_ [social gathering] of Italy; for tea here, is the
substitute for the _rinfresco_ [refreshment]."[30] A view of such an
event has been depicted in the English print _Conversazioni_ (fig. 4),
published in 1782. It is hoped that the stiffly seated and solemn-faced
guests became more talkative when the tea arrived. However, this tea
party may have been like the ones Ferdinand Bayard attended in Bath,
Virginia, of which he wrote: "The only thing you hear, while they are
taking tea, is the whistling sound made by the lips on edges of the
cups. This music is varied by the request made to you to have another
cup."[31] At tea parties, cakes, cold pastries, sweetmeats, preserved
fruits, and plates of cracked nuts might also be served, according to
Mrs. Anne Grant's reminiscences of pre-Revolutionary America.[32] Peter
Kalm noted during his New York sojourn in 1749 that "when you paid a
visit to any home" a bowl of cracked nuts and one of apples were "set
before you, which you ate after drinking tea and even at times while
partaking of tea."[33] Sometimes wine and punch were served at teatime,
and "in summer," observed Barbé-Marbois, "they add fruit and other
things to drink."[34] Coffee too might be served. As the Frenchman
Claude Blanchard explained:[35]
They [the Americans] do not take coffee immediately after
dinner, but it is served three or four hours afterwards with
tea; this coffee is weak and four or five cups are not equal to
one of ours; so that they take many of them. The tea, on the
contrary, is very strong. This use of tea and coffee is
universal in America.
Dealing with both food and drink at the same time was something of an
art. It was also an inconvenience for the uninitiated, and on one
occasion Ferdinand Bayard, a late-18th-century observer of American tea
ritual, witnessed another guest who, "after having taken a cup [of tea]
in one hand and tartlets in the other, opened his mouth and told the
servant to fill it for him with smoked venison!"[36]
While foreign visitors recognized that the "greatest mark of courtesy"
a host and hostess could offer a guest was a cup of tea, hospitality
could be "hot water torture" for foreigners unless they understood the
social niceties not only of holding a cup and tartlet, but of declining
without offending by turning the cup upside down and placing a spoon
upon it. The ceremony of the teaspoon is fully explained by the Prince
de Broglie who, during his visit to Philadelphia in 1782, reported the
following teatime incident at the home of Robert Morris:[37]
I partook of most excellent tea and I should be even now still
drinking it, I believe, if the [French] Ambassador had not
charitably notified me at the twelfth cup, that I must put my
spoon across it when I wished to finish with this sort of warm
water. He said to me: it is almost as ill-bred to refuse a cup
of tea when it is offered to you, as it would [be] indiscreet
for the mistress of the house to propose a fresh one, when the
ceremony of the spoon has notified her that we no longer wish
to partake of it.
Bayard reports that one quick-witted foreigner, uninformed as to the
teaspoon signal, had had his cup filled again and again until he
finally "decided after emptying it to put it into his pocket until the
replenishments had been concluded."[38]
[Illustration: Figure 5.--_Tea Party in the Time of George I_, an
English painting of about 1725. In collection of Colonial Williamsburg,
Inc. The silver equipage includes (left to right) a sugar container and
cover, hexagonal tea canister, hot water jug or milk jug, slop bowl,
teapot, and (in front) sugar tongs, spoon boat or tray, and spoons. The
cups and saucers are Chinese export porcelain. (_Photo courtesy of
Colonial Williamsburg, Inc._)]
The gracious art of brewing and serving tea was as much an instrument
of sociability as was a bit of music or conversation. This custom
received the attention of a number of artists, and it is amazing what
careful and detailed treatment they gave to the accessories of tea. We
are familiar with the journals, newspaper advertisements, and other
writings that provide contemporary reports on this custom, but it is to
the artist we turn for a more clearly defined view. The painter saw,
arranged, and gave us a visual image--sometimes richly informative, as
in _Tea Party in the Time of George I_ (fig. 5)--of the different tea
time items and how they were used. The unknown artist of this painting,
done about 1725, has carefully illustrated each piece of equipment
considered appropriate for the tea ceremony and used for brewing the
tea in the cups held with such grace by the gentleman and child.
Throughout the 18th century the well-equipped tea table would have
displayed most of the items seen in this painting: a teapot, slop bowl,
container for milk or cream, tea canister, sugar container, tongs,
teaspoons, and cups and saucers. These pieces were basic to the tea
ceremony and, with the addition of a tea urn which came into use during
the latter part of the 18th century, have remained the established tea
equipage up to the present day. Even a brief investigation of about 20
inventories--itemized lists of the goods and property of deceased
persons that were required by law--reveal that in New York between 1742
and 1768 teapots, cups and saucers, teaspoons, and tea canisters were
owned by both low and high income groups in both urban and rural areas.
The design and ornament of the tea vessels and utensils, of course,
differed according to the fashion of the time, and the various items
associated with the beverage provide a good index of the stylistic
changes in the 18th century. The simple designs and unadorned surfaces
of the plump pear-shaped teapot in _Tea Party in the Time of George I_
(fig. 5) and the spherical one seen in the portrait _Susanna Truax_
(fig. 2) mark these pieces as examples of the late baroque style
popular in the early part of the 18th century. About mid-century,
teapots of inverted pear-shape, associated with the rococo style, began
to appear. A pot of this shape is depicted in the portrait _Paul
Revere_ painted about 1765 by John Singleton Copley and owned by the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The fact that a teapot was chosen as an
example of Revere's craft, from all of the objects he made, indicates
that such a vessel was valued as highly by its maker as by its owner.
The teapot was a mark of prestige for both craftsman and hostess.
Apparently the famous silversmith and patriot was still working on the
piece, for the nearby tools suggest that the teapot was to have
engraved and chased decoration, perhaps of flowers, scrolls, and other
motifs typical of the rococo style. The restrained decoration and
linear outlines of the teapot illustrated in the print titled _The Old
Maid_ (fig. 14) and the straight sides and oval shape of the teapot
belonging to a late 18th-century child's set (fig. 6) of Chinese export
porcelain are characteristics of the neoclassic style that was
fashionable at the end of the century. Tea drinkers were extremely
conscious of fashion changes and, whenever possible, set their tea
tables with stylish equipment in the prevailing fashion. Newspaper
advertisements, journals, letters, and other written materials indicate
that utensils in the "best and newest taste" were available, desired,
purchased, and used in this country.
[Illustration: Figure 6.--Part of a child's tea set of Chinese export
porcelain, or "painted China," made about 1790. The painted decoration
is of pink roses and rose buds with green leaves; the border is orange,
with blue flowers. At one time this set probably included containers
for cream or milk and sugar, as did the adult "tea table setts
complete." (_USNM 391761; Smithsonian photo 45141-B._)]
Further verification of the types and kinds of equipage used is
supplied by archeological investigations of colonial sites. For
instance, sherds or fragments of objects dug from or near the site of a
dwelling at Marlborough, Virginia, owned and occupied by John Mercer
between 1726 and 1768, included a silver teaspoon made about 1735 and
two teapot tops--one a pewter lid and the other a Staffordshire
salt-glaze cover made about 1745--as well as numerous pieces of
blue-and-white Oriental porcelain cups and saucers (fig. 7). Such
archeological data provides concrete proof about tea furnishings used
in this country. A comparison of sherds from colonial sites with wares
used by the English and of English origin indicates that similar types
of equipage were to be found upon tea tables in both countries. This
also substantiates the already cited American practice of following
English modes and manners, a practice Brissot de Warville noted in 1788
when he wrote that in this country "tea forms, as in England, the basis
of the principal parties of pleasures."[39]
[Illustration: Figure 7.--Fragments of teacups of Chinese export
porcelain with blue decoration on white, excavated at the site of John
Mercer's dwelling at Marlborough, Virginia, 1726-1768. These sherds,
now in the United States National Museum, are from cups similar in
shape and decoration to the ones depicted in figures 1 and 5. (_USNM
59.1890, 59.1969, 59.1786; Smithsonian photo 45141-G._)]
Tea furnishings, when in use, were to be seen upon rectangular tables
with four legs, square-top and circle-top tripods, and Pembroke tables.
Such tables were, of course, used for other purposes, but a sampling of
18th-century Boston inventories reveals that in some households all or
part of the tea paraphernalia was prominently displayed on the tea
table rather than being stored in cupboards or closets. A "Japan'd tea
Table & China" and "a Mahog[any] Do. & China," both in the "Great
Room," are listed in Mrs. Hannah Pemberton's inventory recorded in
Boston in 1758. The inventory of Joseph Blake of Boston recorded in
1746 lists a "tea Table with a Sett of China furniture" in the back
room of the house, while in the "closett" in the front room were "6 Tea
Cups & Saucers" along with other ceramic wares.[40]
The most popular type of tea table apparently was the circular tripod;
that is, a circular top supported on a pillar with three feet. This
kind of table is seen again and again in the prints and paintings
(figs. 1, 2, 9, 14), and is listed in the inventories of the period.
These tables, usually of walnut or mahogany, had stationary or tilt
tops with plain, scalloped, or carved edges. Square or round, tripod or
four-legged, the tables were usually placed against the wall of the
room until teatime when, in the words of Ferdinand Bayard, "a mahogany
table is brought forward and placed in front of the lady who pours the
tea."[41] This practice is depicted in a number of 18th-century
pictures, with the tea table well out in the room, often in front of a
fireplace, and with seated and standing figures at or near the table
(fig. 1). Evidence of such furniture placement in American parlors is
recorded in a sketch and note Nancy Shippen received from one of her
beaus, who wrote in part:[42]
... this evening I passed before Your house and seeing Company
in the parlour I peep'd through the Window and saw a
considerable Tea Company, of which by their situation I could
only distinguish four persons. You will see the plan of this
Company upon the next page.
[Illustration: Figure 8.--A sketch by Louis Guillaume Otto that was
enclosed in a letter to Nancy Shippen of Philadelphia about 1780. The
sketch indicates the placement of the furniture in the Shippen parlor
and the location of the tea-party participants. The "Explication"
accompanying the drawing reads in part: "_A._ Old D^r S^{hippen}
sitting before the Chimney.... _B._ M^r L^{ee} walking up and down,
speaking and laughing by intervalls.... _C._ Miss N^{ancy} [Shippen]
before the tea table.... _D._ M^{rs} S^{hippen} lost in sweet
meditations. _E. F. G._ Some strangers which the Spy [Mr. Otto] could
not distinguish. _H._ Cyrus [the butler] standing in the middle of the
room--half asleep. _I._ M^r O^{tto} standing before the window...."
From Shippen Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.]
In the sketch (fig. 8), a floor plan of the Shippen parlor, we can see
the sofa against the wall between the windows, while chairs and tea
table have been moved out in the room. The table is near the fireplace,
where Miss Shippen served the tea. In the 18th century such an
arrangement was first and foremost one of comfort, and perhaps also one
of taste. The diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer indicates that in 1786 the
first signs of fall were felt on August 1, for the Philadelphian wrote:
"This evening it was so cool that we drank tea by the fire."[43] In the
south as in the north, tea--or, at the time of the American Revolution
its patriotic substitute, coffee--was served by the fire as soon as the
first winter winds were felt. Philip Fithian, while at Nomini Hall in
Virginia, wrote in his journal on September 19, 1774: "the Air is
clear, cold & healthful. We drank our Coffee at the great House very
sociably, round a fine Fire, the House and Air feels like winter
again."[44]
[Illustration: Figure 9.--_The Honeymoon_, by John Collett, about 1760.
In the midst of a domestic scene replete with homey details, the artist
has depicted with care the tea table and its furnishing, including a
fashionable tea urn symbolically topped with a pair of affectionate
birds. (_Photo courtesy of Frick Art Reference Library._)]
Table cloths--usually square white ones (as in fig. 9) that showed
folds from having been stored in a linen press--were used when tea was
served, but it is difficult to say with any certainty if their use
depended upon the whim of the hostess, the type of table, or the time
of day. A cloth probably was used more often on a table with a plain
top than on one with scalloped or carved edges. However, as can be seen
in _Family Group_ (fig. 1) and _An English Family at Tea_
(frontispiece), it was perfectly acceptable to serve tea on a plain-top
table without a cloth. Apparently such tables were also used at
breakfast or morning tea, because Benjamin Franklin, in a letter from
London dated February 19, 1758, gave the following directions for the
use of "six coarse diaper Breakfast Cloths" which he sent to his wife:
"they are to spread on the Tea Table, for nobody breakfasts here on the
naked Table, but on the Cloth set a large Tea Board with the Cups."[45]
Some of the 18th-century paintings depicting tea tables with cloths do
deal with the morning hours, as indicated by their titles or internal
evidence, as in _The Honeymoon_ (fig. 9) painted by John Collett about
1760. In this scene of domestic confusion and bliss, a tray or teaboard
has been placed on the cloth, illustrating Franklin's comment about
English breakfast habits. Cloths may also be seen in pictures in which
the time of day cannot be determined. Therefore, the use of a cloth at
teatime may in truth have depended upon the hostess's whim if not her
pocketbook.
In addition, trays or teaboards of various sizes and shapes were
sometimes used. They were usually circular or rectangular in form,
occasionally of shaped or scalloped outline. Some trays were supported
upon low feet; others had pierced or fretwork galleries or edges to
prevent the utensils from slipping off. Wood or metal was the usual
material, although ceramic trays were also used. At large gatherings a
tray was often employed for passing refreshments (fig. 4). "A servant
brings in on a silver tray the cups, the sugar bowl, the cream jugs,
pats of butter, and smoked meat, which are offered to each individual,"
explained Ferdinand Bayard.[46] The principal use of the tray was, of
course, to bring the tea equipage to the table. Whether placed on a
bare or covered table, it arrived with the various pieces such as cups
and saucers, spoons, containers for sugar and cream or milk, tongs,
bowls, and dishes arranged about the teapot.
[Illustration: Figure 10.--Pieces of a tea set of Crown-Derby
porcelain, dating about 1790. The cups and saucers, covered sugar bowl,
container for cream or milk, plate and bowls are ornamented with gilt
borders and a scattering of blue flowers on a white ground (_USNM
54089-54095; Smithsonian photo 45541-A._)]
Such tea furnishings of ceramic were sold in sets; that is, all pieces
being of the same pattern. Newspaper advertisements in the 1730's
specifically mention "Tea Setts," and later in the century ceramic
imports continue to include "beautiful compleat Tea-Setts" (fig. 10).
In the early 18th century, tea sets of silver were uncommon if not
actually unique, though pieces were occasionally made to match existing
items, and, in this way, a so-called set similar to the pieces seen in
_Tea Party in the Time of George I_ (fig. 5) could be formed. However,
by the latter part of the century the wealthier hostesses were able to
purchase from among a "most elegant assortment of Silver Plate ...
compleat Tea and Coffee services, plain and rich engraved."[47] When of
metal, tea sets (fig. 11) usually consisted of a teapot, containers for
sugar and cream or milk, and possibly a slop bowl, while ceramic sets,
such as the one seen in _Family Group_ (fig. 1), included cups and
saucers as well.
[Illustration: Figure 11.--Silver tea set consisting of teapot, sugar
bowl, container for cream or milk, and waste bowl, made by John
McMullin, of Philadelphia, about 1800. Matching coffee and hot water
pot made by Samuel Williamson, also of Philadelphia. The letter "G," in
fashionable script, is engraved on each piece. (_USNM 37809;
Smithsonian photo 45541._)]
While the tea set illustrated in _Family Group_ appears to have all the
basic pieces, it can hardly be considered a "complete" tea set when
compared with the following porcelain sets listed in the 1747 inventory
of James Pemberton of Boston:
One sett Burnt [china] Cont[aining] 12 Cups }
& Saucers Slop Bowl Tea Pot Milk Pot }
boat [for spoons] tea Cannister Sugar Dish } [£]20
5 Handle Cups plate for the Tea Pot & a }
wh[i]t[e] Tea Pot Value }
One set Blue & white do. contg. 12 Cups & }
saucers Slop Bowl 2 plates Sugr. Dish }
Tea Pot 6 Handle Cups & white tea Pot } [£]10
Value }
In addition, the Pemberton inventory lists a silver tea pot and "1 pr.
Tea Tongs & Strainer," items that were undoubtedly used with the
ceramic sets.[48]
Tea sets were even available for the youngest hostess, and the "several
compleat Tea-table Sets of Children's cream-colored [ceramic] Toys"
mentioned in a Boston advertisement of 1771 no doubt added a note of
luxury to make-believe tea parties during playtime.[49] The pieces in
children's tea sets, such as the ones pictured from a child's set of
Chinese export porcelain (fig. 6), usually were like those of regular
sets and differed only in size. Little Miss Livingston must have been
happy, indeed, when her uncle wrote[50] that he had sent
... a compleat tea-apparatus for her Baby [doll]. Her Doll may
now invite her Cousins Doll to tea, & parade her teatable in
form. This must be no small gratification to her. It would be
fortunate if happiness were always attainable with equal ease.
The pieces of tea equipage could be purchased individually. For
instance, teacups and saucers, which are differentiated in
advertisements from both coffee and chocolate cups, regularly appear in
lists of ceramic wares offered for sale, such as "very handsome Setts
of blue and white China Tea-Cups and Saucers," or "enamell'd, pencill'd
and gilt (fig. 12), red and white, blue and white, enamell'd and
scallop'd (fig. 13), teacups and saucers."[51] These adjectives used by
18th-century salesmen usually referred to the types and the colors of
the decorations that were painted on the pieces. "Enameled" most likely
meant that the decorations were painted over the glaze, and "penciled"
may have implied motifs painted with a fine black line of pencil-like
appearance, while "gilt," "red and white," and "blue and white" were
the colors and types of the decoration. Blue and white china was,
perhaps, the most popular type of teaware, for it regularly appears in
newspaper advertisements and inventories and among sherds from colonial
sites (fig. 7).
[Illustration: Figure 12.--Cup and saucer of Chinese export porcelain
with scalloped edges and fluting. The painted decoration of black
floral design on the side of the cup is touched with gold; the borders
are of intersecting black vines and ribbons. (_USNM 284499; Smithsonian
photo 45141-D._)]
[Illustration: Figure 13.--Hand-painted Staffordshire creamware teacup
excavated at the site of a probable 18th-century and early 19th-century
china shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Decoration consists of a
brown band above a vine border with green leaves and blue berries over
orange bellflowers. The spiral fluting on the body and the slight
scalloping on the edge of this cup are almost identical with that on
the cup held by Mrs. Calmes in figure 15. (_USNM 397177-B; Smithsonian
photo 45141-C._)]
Concerning tea, the Abbé Robin went so far as to say that "there is not
a single person to be found, who does not drink it out of china cups
and saucers."[52] However exaggerated the statement may be, it does
reflect the popularity and availability of Chinese export porcelain in
the post-Revolutionary period when Americans were at last free to
engage in direct trade with the Orient. Porcelain for the American
market was made in a wide variety of forms, as well as in complete
dinner and tea sets, and was often decorated to special order.
Handpainted monograms, insignia of various kinds, and patriotic motifs
were especially popular. A tea set decorated in this way was sent to
Dr. David Townsend of Boston, a member of the Society of the
Cincinnati, by a fellow member of the Society, Maj. Samuel Shaw,
American consul at Canton. In a letter to Townsend from Canton, China,
dated December 20, 1790, Shaw wrote:
Accept, my dear friend, as a mark of my esteem and affection, a
tea set of porcelain, ornamented with the Cincinnati and your
cypher. I hope shortly after its arrival to be with you, and in
company with your amiable partner, see whether a little good
tea improves or loses any part of its flavor in passing from
one hemisphere to the other.
Appended to the letter was the following inventory,[53] which provides
us with a list of the pieces deemed essential for a fashionably set tea
table:
2 tea pots & stands
Sugar bowl & do
Milk ewer
Bowl & dish
6 breakfast cups & saucers
12 afternoon do
Porcelain, however, had long been a part of China-trade cargos to
Europe and from there to America. The early shipments of tea had
included such appropriate vessels for the storage, brewing, and
drinking of the herb as tea jars, teapots, and teacups. The latter were
small porcelain bowls without handles, a form which the Europeans and
Americans adopted and continued to use throughout the 18th century for
tea, in contrast to the deeper and somewhat narrower cups, usually with
handles, in which chocolate and coffee were served. Even after
Europeans learned to manufacture porcelain early in the 18th century,
the ware continued to be imported from China in large quantities and
was called by English-speaking people, "china" from its country of
origin. Porcelain also was referred to as "India china ware," after the
English and continental East India Companies, the original traders and
importers of the ware. "Burnt china" was another term used in the 18th
century to differentiate porcelain from pottery.
Whatever the ware, the teacups and saucers, whether on a tray, the
cloth, or a bare table, were usually arranged in an orderly manner
about the teapot, generally in rows on a rectangular table or tray and
in a circle on a round table or tray. In the English conversation piece
painting titled _Mr. and Mrs. Hill in Their Drawing Room_, by Arthur
Devis about 1750, the circular tripod tea table between the couple and
in front of the fireplace is set in such a way. The handleless teacups
on saucers are neatly arranged in a large semicircle around the rotund
teapot in the center that is flanked on one side by a bowl and on the
other by a jug for milk or cream and a sugar container. Generally, cups
and saucers were not piled one upon the other but spread out on the
table or tray where they were filled with tea and then passed to each
guest.
[Illustration: Figure 14.--_The Old Maid_, an English cartoon published
in 1777. In Print and Photograph Division, Library of Congress.
Although the Englishwoman apparently is defying established tea
etiquette by drinking from a saucer and allowing the cat on the table,
her tea furnishings appear to be in proper order. The teapot is on a
dish and the teakettle is on its own special stand, a smaller version
of the tripod tea table.]
Pictures show male and female guests holding both cup and saucer or
just the cup. An English satirical print, _The Old Maid_ (fig. 14),
published in 1777, was the only illustration found that depicted an
individual using a dish for tea, or, to be exact, a saucer. In the 18th
century a dish of tea was in reality a cup of tea, for the word "dish"
meant a cup or vessel used for drinking as well as a utensil to hold
food at meals. A play on this word is evident in the following exchange
reported by Philip Fithian between himself and Mrs. Carter, the
mistress of Nomini Hall, one October forenoon in 1773: "Shall I help
you, Mr. Fithian, to a Dish of Coffee?--I choose a deep Plate, if you
please Ma'am, & Milk."[54] The above suggests that the practice of
saucer sipping, while it may have been common among the general public,
was frowned upon by polite society. The fact that Americans preferred
and were "accustomed to eat everything hot" further explains why tea
generally was drunk from the cup instead of the saucer. According to
Peter Kalm, "when the English women [that is, of English descent] drank
tea, they never poured it out of the cup into the saucer to cool it,
but drank it as hot as it came from the teapot."[55] Later in the
century another naturalist, C. F. Volney, also noted that "very hot
tea" was "beloved by Americans of English descent."[56] From this it
would appear that "dish of tea" was an expression rather than a way of
drinking tea in the 18th century. On the table a saucer seems always to
have been placed under the cup whether the cup was right side up or
upside down.
[Illustration: Figure 15.--_Mrs. Calmes_, by G. Frymeier, 1806. In
Calmes-Wright-Johnson Collection, Chicago Historical Society. The cup
and saucer (or bowl), possibly hand-decorated Staffordshire ware or
Chinese export porcelain, are decorated with dark blue bands and dots,
wavy brown band, and a pink rose with green foliage. (_Photo courtesy
of Chicago Historical Society._)]
Teaspoons, when in use, might be placed on the saucer or left in the
cups. The portrait titled _Mrs. Calmes_ (fig. 15), painted by G.
Frymeier in 1806, indicates that handling a cup with the spoon in it
could be accomplished with a certain amount of grace. Teaspoons also
were placed in a pile on the table or in a silver "Boat for Tea
Spoons," or more often in such ceramic containers as "Delph Ware ...
Spoon Trays," or blue-and-white or penciled china "spoon boats."[57]
[Illustration: Figure 16.--Silver tongs in the rococo style, made by
Jacob Hurd, of Boston, about 1750. (_USNM 383530; Smithsonian photo
45141._)]
Tongs were especially suited for lifting the lumps of sugar from their
container to the teacup. During the 18th century both arched and
scissor type tongs were used. Instead of points, the latter had dainty
flat grips for holding a lump of sugar (fig. 16). The early arched
tongs were round in section, as are the pair illustrated in _Tea Party
in the Time of George I_ (fig. 5), while tongs made by arching or
bending double a flat strip of silver (fig. 17) date from the second
half of the 18th century. These articles of tea equipage, variously
known as "tongs," "tea tongs," "spring tea tongs," and "sugar tongs,"
were usually made of silver, though "ivory and wooden tea-tongs" were
advertised in 1763.[58] According to the prints and paintings of the
period, tongs were placed in or near the sugar container. Teaspoons
were also used for sugar, as illustrated in the painting _Susanna
Truax_ (fig. 2). Perhaps young Miss Truax is about to indulge in a
custom favored by the Dutch population of Albany as reported by Peter
Kalm in 1749: "They never put sugar into the cup, but take a small bit
of it into their mouths while they drink."[59]
[Illustration: Figure 17.--Silver tongs made by William G. Forbes, of
New York, about 1790. In the United States National Museum. The
engraved decoration of intersecting lines is typical of the neoclassic
style. A variant of this motif appears as the painted border on a
porcelain cup and saucer of the same period (fig. 12). (_USNM 59.474;
Smithsonian photo 45141-A._)]
Shallow dishes, such as the one seen in the portrait _Susanna Truax_,
and hemispherical bowls were used as containers for sugar. Often called
"sugar dishes" or just "sugars," they were available in delftware,
glass (fig. 18), and silver as well as in blue-and-white, burnt,
enameled, and penciled china. Some containers were sold with covers,
and it has been suggested that the saucer-shaped cover of the
hemispherical sugar dish or bowl, fashionable in the first half of the
18th century, also served as a spoon tray. However, in the painting
_Tea Party in the Time of George I_ (fig. 5) the cover is leaning
against the bowl and the spoons are in an oval spoon tray or boat.
Another possibility, if the lid was multipurpose, is that it was used
as a dish or stand under the teapot to protect the table top. Silver
sugar boxes, basins, and plated sugar baskets were other forms used to
hold sugar,[60] which, in whatever container, was a commodity important
to the Americans. As Moreau de St. Méry noted, they "use great
quantities in their tea."[61]
[Illustration: Figure 18.--Stiegel-type, cobalt-blue glass sugar dish
with cover, made about 1770. (_USNM 38922; Smithsonian photo 42133-D._)]
Containers for cream or milk may be seen in many of the 18th-century
teatime pictures and are found in the advertisements of the period
under a variety of names. There were cream pots of glass and pewter and
silver (figs. 19 and 20), jugs of penciled and burnt china, and in the
1770's one could obtain "enameled and plain three footed cream jugs"
from Mr. Henry William Stiegel's glass factory at Manheim,
Pennsylvania. There were cream pails, urns, and ewers of silver plate,
and plated cream basins "gilt inside."[62] Milk pots, used on some tea
tables instead of cream containers, were available in silver, pewter,
ceramic, and "sprig'd, cut and moulded" glass.[63] Although
contemporary diarists and observers of American customs seem not to
have noticed whether cream was served cold and milk hot, or if tea
drinkers were given a choice between cream and milk, the Prince de
Broglie's comment already cited concerning his ability to drink
"excellent tea with even better cream" and the predominance of cream
over milk containers in 18th-century advertisements would seem to
indicate that in this country cream rather than milk was served with
tea in the afternoon.
[Illustration: Figure 19.--Silver creamer made by Myer Myers, of New
York, about 1750. The fanciful curves of the handle and feet are
related to the rococo design of the sugar tongs in figure 16. (_USNM
383553; Smithsonian photo 45141-F._)]
[Illustration: Figure 20.--Silver creamer made by Simeon A. Bayley, of
New York, about 1790. The only ornamentation is the engraving of the
initials "R M" below the pouring lip. (_USNM 383465; Smithsonian photo
45141-E._)]
While the Americans, as the Europeans, added cream or milk and sugar to
their tea, the use of lemon with the beverage is questionable. Nowhere
is there any indication that the citrus fruit was served or used with
tea in 18th-century America. Punch seems to have been the drink with
which lemons were associated.
Often a medium-sized bowl, usually hemispherical in shape, is to be
seen on the tea table, and it is most likely a slop bowl or basin.
According to advertisements these bowls and basins were available in
silver, pewter, and ceramic.[64] Before a teacup was replenished, the
remaining tea and dregs were emptied into the slop bowl. Then the cup
might be rinsed with hot water and the rinsing water discarded in the
bowl. The slop basin may also have been the receptacle for the mote or
foreign particles--then inherent in tea but now extracted by mechanical
means--that had to be skimmed off the beverage in the cup. In England
this was probably done with a small utensil known to present day
collectors as a mote spoon or mote skimmer. Although the exact purpose
of these spoons remains unsettled, it seems likely that they were used
with tea. It has been suggested that the perforated bowl of the spoon
was used for skimming foreign particles off the tea in the cup and the
tapering spike-end stem to clear the clogged-up strainer of the teapot
spout. The almost complete absence of American-made mote spoons
suggests that these particular utensils were seldom used here. Possibly
the "skimmer" advertised in 1727 with other silver tea pieces was such
a spoon.[65] No doubt, tea strainers (fig. 21) were also used to insure
clear tea. The tea dregs might then be discarded in the slop bowl or
left in the strainer and the strainer rested on the bowl. However, only
a few contemporary American advertisements and inventories have been
found which mention tea strainers.[66] Punch strainers, though
generally larger in size, seem to have doubled as tea strainers in some
households. The 1757 inventory of Charles Brockwell of Boston includes
a punch strainer which is listed not with the wine glasses and other
pieces associated with punch but with the tea items: "1 Small Do.
[china] Milk Pot 1 Tea Pot 6 Cups & 3 Saucers & 1 Punch Strainer."[67]
Presumably, the strainer had last been used for tea.
[Illustration: Figure 21.--Silver strainer made by James Butler, of
Boston, about 1750. The handle's pierced pattern of delicate, curled
vines distinguishes this otherwise plain strainer. (_USNM 383485;
Smithsonian photo 44828-J._)]
The teapot was, of course, the very center of the social custom of
drinking tea; so, it usually was found in the center of the tray or
table. At first, only teapots of Oriental origin imported with the
cargos of tea were available, for the teapot had been unknown to
Europeans before the introduction of the beverage. However, as tea
gained acceptance as a social drink and the demand for equipage
increased, local craftsmen were stimulated to produce wares that could
compete with the Chinese imports. Teapots based on Chinese models and
often decorated with Chinese motifs were fashioned in ceramic and
silver. No doubt many an 18th-century hostess desired a silver teapot
to grace her table and add an elegant air to the tea ceremony. A
lottery offering one must have raised many a hope, especially if, as an
advertisement of 1727 announced, the "highest Prize consists of an
Eight Square Tea-Pot," as well as "six Tea-Spoons, Skimmer and Tongs."
By the end of the century "an elegant silver tea-pot with an ornamental
lid, resembling a Pine-apple" would have been the wish of a
fashion-conscious hostess. Less expensive than silver, but just as
stylish according to the merchants' advertisements were "newest fashion
teapots" of pewter or, in the late 18th century, Britannia metal
teapots. The latest mode in ceramic ware also was to be found upon the
tea table. In the mid-18th century it was "English brown China Tea-Pots
of Sorts, with a rais'd Flower" (probably the ceramic with a deep, rich
brown glaze known today as Jackfield-type ware), "black," "green and
Tortois" (a pottery glazed with varigated colors in imitation of
tortoise shell), and "Enameled Stone" teapots. At the time of the
American Revolution, teaware imports included "Egyptian, Etruscan,
embossed red China, agate, green, black, colliflower, white, and blue
and white stone enamelled, striped, fluted, pierced and plain Queen's
ware tea pots."[68]
Sometimes the teapot, whether ceramic, pewter, or silver, was placed
upon a dish or small, tile-like stand with feet. These teapot stands
served as insulation by protecting the surface of the table or tray
from the damaging heat of the teapot. Stands often were included in tea
sets but also were sold individually, such as the "Pencil'd China ...
tea pot stands," advertised in 1775, and the "teapot stands" of "best
London plated ware" imported in 1797.[69] The stands must have been
especially useful when silver equipage was set on a bare table top;
many of the silver teapots of elliptical shape with a flat base, so
popular in the latter part of the 18th century, had matching stands
raised on short legs to protect the table from the expanse of hot
metal. On occasion the teapot was placed on a spirit lamp or burner to
keep the beverage warm.
In most instances it was the hot water kettle that sat upon a spirit
lamp or burner rather than a teapot. Kettles were usually related to
the form of contemporary teapots, but differed in having a swing handle
on top and a large, rather flat base that could be placed over the
flame. Advertisements mention teakettles of copper, pewter, brass, and
silver, some "with lamps and stands."[70] The actual making of tea was
part of the ceremony and was usually done by the hostess at the tea
table. This necessitated a ready supply of boiling water close at hand
to properly infuse the tea and, as Ferdinand Bayard reported, it also
"weakens the tea or serves to clean up the cups."[71] Thus, the kettle
and burner on their own individual table or stand were placed within
easy reach of the tea table. According to 18th-century pictures the
kettle was an important part of the tea setting, but it seldom appeared
on the tea table. Special stands for kettles generally were made in the
same form as the tea tables, though smaller in scale (fig. 14). The
square stands often had a slide on which to place the teapot when the
hot water was poured into it.
Both pictures and advertisements reveal that by the 1770's the tea urn
was a new form appearing at teatime in place of the hot water kettle.
Contrary to its name, the tea urn seldom held tea. These large silver
or silver-plated vessels, some of which looked like vases with domed
covers, usually had two handles on the shoulders and a spout with a tap
in the front near the bottom. "Ponty pool, japanned, crimson, and
gold-striped Roman tea urns" imported from Europe were among the
fashionable teawares advertised at the end of the 18th century.[72] The
urn might be placed on a stand of its own near the table or on the tray
or table in the midst of the other equipage as it is in the painting
titled _The Honeymoon_ (fig. 9). Wherever placed, it signified the
newest mode in teatime furnishings. One Baltimorean, O. H. Williams, in
a letter dated April 12, 1786, to a close friend, enthusiastically
explained that "Tea & Coffee Urns plated (mine are but partially plated
and are extremely neat) are the genteelest things of the sort used now
at any House & tables inferior to the first fortunes."[73]
[Illustration: Figure 22.--The sign of "The Tea Canister and Two Sugar
Loaves" used by a New York grocer and confectioner in the 1770's. Other
"tea" motifs for shop signs in the 18th century included "The Teapot,"
used by a Philadelphia goldsmith in 1757, and "The Tea Kettle and
Stand," which marked the shop of a Charleston jeweller in 1766.]
The tea canister (fig. 22), a storage container for the dry tea leaves,
was yet another piece of equipment to be found on the table or tray.
Ceramic canisters of blue and white, and red and gold, could be
purchased to match other tea furnishings of the same ware, and silver
tea canisters often were fashioned to harmonize with the silver teapots
of the period. Individual canisters were produced, as well as canisters
in sets of two or three. A set of canisters usually was kept in the box
in which it came, a case known as a tea chest or tea caddy, such as the
"elegant assortment of Tea-caddies, with one, two and three canisters"
advertised in 1796.[74] Canister tops if dome-shaped were used to
measure out the tea and transfer it to the teapot. Otherwise, small,
short-handled spoons with broad, shallow bowls known as caddy spoons
and caddy ladles were used. However handled, the tea could have been
any one of the numerous kinds available in the 18th century. Although
Hyson, Soughong, and Congo, the names inscribed on the canister in
figure 22, may have been favored, there were many other types of tea,
as the following advertisement from the _Boston News-Letter_ of
September 16, 1736, indicates:[75]
To be Sold ... at the Three Sugar Loaves, and Cannister ...
very choice Teas, viz: Bohea Tea from 22 s. to 28 s. per Pound,
Congou Tea, 34 s. Pekoe Tea, 50 s. per Pound, Green Tea from 20
s. to 30 s. per Pound, fine Imperial Tea from 40 s. to 60 s.
per Pound.
In the 18th century tea drinking was an established social custom with
a recognized etiquette and distinctive equipage as we know from the
pictures and writings of the period. At teatime men and women gathered
to pursue leisurely conversations and enjoy the sociability of the home.
A study of _An English Family at Tea_ (frontispiece) will summarize the
etiquette and equipage of the ritual--
On the floor near the table is a caddy with the top open, showing one
canister of a pair. The mistress of the house, seated at the tea table,
is measuring out dry tea leaves from the other canister into its lid.
Members of the family stand or sit about the square tea table while
they observe this first step in the ceremony. A maidservant stands
ready with the hot water kettle to pour the boiling water over the
leaves once they are in the teapot. In the background is the tripod
kettle stand with a lamp, where the kettle will be placed until needed
to rinse the cups or dilute the tea.
Not seen in this detail of the painting is the entry of a male servant
who is carrying a tall silver pot, which may have contained chocolate
or coffee. These two other social beverages of the 18th century were
served in cups of a deep cylindrical shape, like the three seen on the
end of the table. The shallow, bowl-shaped, handleless teacups and the
saucers are arranged in a neat row along one side of the table. The
teapot rests on a square tile-like stand or dish that protects the
table from the heat. Nearby is a bowl to receive tea dregs, a pot for
cream or milk, and a sugar bowl.
The teatime ritual has begun.
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